Peanut Butter Madness

These are so sweet! I could barely make it through one! Not overly sweet...just right...but so filling! This recipe only made ten complete cookies which seemed perfect to me..but if you want more, you should try doubling it.
I love having the internet for a recipe source. You can find so many recipes and variations and then you can still use your creativity and make your own variation. It is an excellent resource. This recipe is found on allrecipes.com.
I am crazy for Peanut Butter.

Double Decker Peanut Butter Cookies

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

8 Tbl. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. quick-cooking oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape bowl. Add the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Add the oats and beat just enough to distribute evenly. Using a small ice cream scoop, drop dough onto cookie sheet, leaving 2-inches between each. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden and puffed. Cool completely and place a spoonful of filling on half of the cookies and top with the other half to form a sandwich.

Filling:

4 1/2 Tbl. unsalted butter, room temp.

1/2 - 3/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1-2 Tbl. milk

Filling: Beat butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add a pinch of salt, vanilla and 1 Tbl. of milk. Beat until smooth and fluffy. If it is too thick, add another Tbl. of milk.

Food, glorious food

This is an imitation recipe for Texas Road House rolls....or you could say Rexas Toad House as one of my boys calls it. These rolls took some time with all the rising...but they were fairly simple to make. I think they tasted really close to the real deal. They were kind of dense and very tasty. I cut them into squares using a pizza roller. This recipe made a ton. About fifty rolls. I followed the recipe with one exception. Well I don't know if you can call it an exception...but all that is found in my fridge on a normal day is skim milk so I used mostly skim milk with about 3/4 of a can of evaporated milk as well. In a nutshell, these were glorious.

Copy-cat for Texas Road House Rolls

4 tsp. active dry yeast

1/2 c. warm water

2 c. milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm

3 Tbl. of melted butter, slightly cooled

1/2 c. sugar

2 quarts all purpose flour (7-8 cups)

2 whole eggs

2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water with a teaspoon of sugar. Add yeast, milk, sugar and enough flour to make a medium batter. Beat thoroughly. Let stand until light and foamy. Add melted butter, eggs and salt. Beat well.

Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Sprinkle a small amount of flour onto counter and let dough rest. Meanwhile, grease a large bowl. Knead dough until smooth and satiny and put in greased bowl; turn over to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Punch down. Turn out onto a floured board. Divide into portions for shaping; let rest 10 minutes. Shape dough into desired forms. Place on greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Baste immediately with butter. Yield: 5 to 6 dozen.

Wool stripping and hooking

My mother wanted to take a class on wool rug hooking. She needed someone to take it with her in order for it to be offered. I hooked this pillow or table runner. It was actually really simple and fun. I cut strips of wool using a material stripper and then just pulled it through fabric with a hook. It is a log cabin pattern. The sweet old lady that taught this class was so funny. She belongs to the Plum Alley Hookers and Strippers club. She makes the most beautiful rugs, wall hangings, runners and pillows. I recently pulled this out to finish the edge on it. I love how the light contrasts with the dark colors. The example the lady made was out of reds, whites and blues. I have never been very fond of blue and chose to wing it with different colors. I am happy with how it turned out.

It will be here before you know it! Yikes!

This cold weather has got me thinking about the Holidays. My mother had this painted tray in her kitchen during the Christmas season. I have always admired and loved it. I found a tray at the thrift store for a buck. I spray painted it red and let it dry. The most difficult part of making this was trying to transfer the design from my mom's tray. I tried several things including charcoal rubbing, using tracing paper, and the thing that finally worked out the best was placing a piece of paper on the design and then rubbing a crayon over it. It is painted on the metal tray and thus it is somewhat raised. At least enough that I could finally get a rubbing to show through. I then just outlined the crayon rubbing and using transfer paper, traced it onto my tray. I then painted the lines and filled in the words with black paint and a tiny paintbrush. I never knew I had a problem with shaking until I attempted this project! It was difficult and one I do not wish to repeat. I am now ready to place it in my kitchen for the holidays reminiscent of bygone childhood days. This is the finished project with all its imperfections.

Poetry

I have been Spring cleaning recently (yes, in the Fall) and I ran across some poetry I had written years ago. I had forgotten that I enjoyed writing poetry. I have always wanted to try my hand at writing a children's book and maybe even illustrating it as well.
I don't claim to be very good at poetry but I thought I would share one of them.

Watching through silent panes of glass

Waiting for clouds to disperse

Weary, misplaced in a chasm of doubt and fear

Wanting to run, imitating the breeze on an Autumn morning

Whispering words of my undying devotion to hear the hollow echo return

Wishing for unspoken kindness through love that cannot be touched

Wondering if man is capable of being true, entering into unfailing commitment

Wandering down barren paths I've trod before but somehow all is new springing forth

Winter has faded, shafts of light pierce through clouds

Waking, I realize it is you, here by my side, proving your great worth

Willingly I give you my hand, my love, my life and my unwavering heart

Bear Lake

Here is a picture out of the window where I have been spending the majority of my summer. I LOVE this place, not only for its beauty but the memories it holds. It is where my dad grew up and I spent a majority of my childhood. We used to go and help my grandpa bring in the hay and with the cattle almost every single Saturday in the Summer months. I stayed at my grandparents home every Summer as well for eight weeks or so to pick raspberries for money. I earned enough to pay my school fines and buy clothes for school. A lot of good memories in the berry patch. I picked them from the time I was twelve years old until I was sixteen years old. I used to only dream about picking berries! I couldn't even eat one for a few years after that experience. My Grandpa owned a place called Red Hill. He is gone now, but I sure do have a plethora of great memories with him. If I could, I would spend all of my Summer days here.

Crazy canning season!

I bought TEN Nanking cherry trees at a bare root sale a couple of summers ago. I planted them in my garden far too close to each other....thinking I would move them as they grew. They didn't ever get moved and they grew like weeds! This is the first year I have had fruit on them. They were loaded! I noticed them while trying to catch up on the enormous amount of weeds that seem to plan to grow as fast as they can while I am away. My kids and I picked them last night. I juiced them and sealed the juice for another not-so-busy day (yeah right, who am I kidding). I plan on making jelly with the juice. I have never attempted Nanking cherry jelly and am way excited to see how it turns out! They are teeny tiny cherries but they aren't so sour to make you pucker when you eat one. The pits take up most of the cherry so I am sure I won't be trying to pit them to make a pie. Isn't it a pretty color!

T-shirt Quilt!

I am in the process of making T-shirt quilts for my three boys. I used their old shirts and ironed a fusible interfacing onto the back of them. I had a glass shop cut me the size of square that I wanted out of Plexiglas. I cut them out and sewed a border between them. It was fun and will be a great memory for them. My cousin wants to make one for her daughter and she mentioned that she might use T-shirts for both sides. I am still contemplating that one. I do have to admit that I began this process years ago...and just like all my projects, it was neglected for quite some time. However, I did start this process long before the Twilight series was ever even a dream in the author's mind. In other words, I did not get the idea from the T-shirt quilt given to Bella by her mother in the movie. Just because the top is done, doesn't mean that it will be quilted and finished for another year or even more. As long as I keep plugging away, I feel okay about procrastination. :)

Happy Fourth of July! (better late than never!)

I bought some wool yarn at a local thrift store and have been hooking pillows with it. They are fairly easy and offer some enjoyment. However, I do not like to sew them up and stuff them. In fact, if you look at the bottoms of a lot of my hand-made pillows, you will see that I haven't bothered to hand stitch the gap that allows for stuffing. I definitely love the creative process a lot more than the mundane task that requires sewing by hand. When first attracted by this art, I was able to find quite a lot of wool yarn for fifty cents a skein and I hoarded it with the intention of mass producing some of my pillows and offering them for sale. I have found that once I make just one, the magic of anticipating how the finished product will look is lost and I have no desire to make another, not to mention five or ten more. I made this one a few years back in celebration of the fourth of July. It is one of my very favorites. I keep thinking I will make another just like it for my sister-in-law...but haven't convinced myself yet. I just make up my own patterns or sometimes I use a simple drawing from a coloring book. I use a punch needle to punch the yarn through burlap.

A little mixed up on Holidays!

I have found more time this summer to hand sew during other activities than I had all winter long. I am just finishing yet another neglected project. I borrowed a similar runner from my sister-in-law just following Halloween last year. I loved the primitive feeling of the cats and pumpkins. I just used some wool felt I happened to have on hand and tried to replicate the runner. This is the end result. I made mine a little longer and more narrow. I am getting good at the blanket stitch. I only skewered my finger once! Now there is no more pressure to be done by next Halloween so my sister-in-law can use her decoration once more. Hooray.

Craving...satisfied!

I have been craving this coffee cake for a month! My oldest boy was kind enough to make me some today. You can use any flavor of pie filling you fancy. Just be sure not to overcook it. This was blueberry pie filling. Deliriously delicious!

Coffee Cake

Cream together:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. almond extract

Stir in:

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3 cups flour

Spread 2/3 of the batter in a greased 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 X 1" jelly roll pan.

Spread 1 can fruit pie filling over the batter.

Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over pie filling.

Bake 350* for 35-40 minutes.

Drizzle with powdered sugar glaze.

Christmas in June???

I LOVE camping! Retreating to the mountains with my children is the BEST summer activity! We spent four days camping this past week. My daughter called our camp spot her "summer home". She referred to the river as our own swimming pool. Lazing in the hammock reading a book together, enjoying the cool mountain breeze is far preferable to shopping at the mall....in fact, if you ask me, ANYTHING is preferable to shopping at the mall! We carved animals out of driftwood, had dart gun blowing contests, played in the river, explored and enjoyed each evening by firelight. I generally take a sewing project along so that it can sit untouched until I return, but this time, I brought something simple that had been collecting dust for far too long. I began this Christmas tree skirt ages ago but, alas, it joined the fate of countless unfinished sewing projects forgotten in my craft room. It beckoned me to take it and I threw it in, thinking that perhaps I would find the time to finish it. I did! I know it is a bit early to be thinking of Christmas...that or a bit late, but regardless, I am finally done! Yeah! Now to box it up to wait for December to come around once more. :)

Butterscotch Pudding Cookies

These are one of my personal favorites! I love making these with different kinds of puddings and chips or nuts. I love using white chocolate pudding and white chocolate chips with macadamia nuts.

Pudding Cookies

2 C. butter

1&1/2 C. sugar

1&1/2 C. brown sugar

3 eggs

3 tsp. vanilla

5&1/4 C. flour

1&1/2 tsp. baking soda

1&1/2 tsp. salt

1 small box instant pudding (I used butterscotch)

1 pkg. chips (I used butterscotch)

Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients. Stir in chips.

Bake at 350* for 13 minutes.

My Treasures!!!

I wanted to write a little bit about each of my children and why they make me so proud. My oldest son's name is Trulan. He is twenty years old. He is six foot five. He has an affinity to cars from the seventies. He is an outstanding unpublished author. He has written a series of fictional books that keep me on the edge of my seat! He began writing when he was about 15 years of age. He was extremely bored in school and would spend his time writing. Every day, he would come home and share a new chapter with me. I could hardly wait for the next day to see what would happen in his story. I hope he decides to get published. Tru is a computer genius and loves to build or repair computers. He is currently trying to find employment with all the other unemployed out there. He has a scholarship to USU for this Fall. He has an extreme aversion to dogs! He is my taxi driver and I am going to miss him when he decides to move out.

Cabren is my 18 year old boy. He just graduated from High School. He is six foot four. He is in Alaska learning to be an auto mechanic. He is apprenticing under my favorite brother (sorry all my other brothers but we were tight growing up!). Cabe is very kind and concerned about others. He has an excellent sense of humor. He makes me laugh every single day! I am missing him right now. He likes to fish and once when he was little he told me he wanted to grow up to be a red neck! Cabren is very smart and has a lot of common sense. He has one of those personalities where you know he is going to go far. He is a really good person. On another occasion when I was asking what he might want to be, he said that all he really wanted to be was a good dad. He is going to make some very lucky girl happy one day.

I grow them tall! My 14 year old boy is five foot ten and growing. His name is Holden. He has always (for as long as I can remember anyway) been called Moochie. He hasn't ever had a problem with asking anyone for anything despite all I could do to teach him about politeness and self control. He has always had an excellent sense of rhythm. He would do well at playing an instrument but I can't talk him into it. He does sing and has an excellent voice. He likes to draw and paint as well and is an excellent artist. He doesn't like loud noises or distractions. He isn't very fond of change. He is getting ready to go into the ninth grade. He is a little hard to build a fire under but once he is out, he has a good time. Holden loves to ride motorcycles and is getting good at it. He likes to tease but not be teased.

Kambrie is my one and only daughter. I have posted about her before. She doesn't mind when I talk about her on here....but when I ask the boys if I can talk about the honor roll or some other achievement they have been awarded, they threaten me with my life. Two of them have been awarded the Presidential award in academics. I won't say which two and therefore, my life will be spared. Two of them are also Eagle Scouts, and the third one is so close.

On to Kambrie. She is 10 years old and is a sweetheart! She loves animals and would adopt every stray she could....if I would let her. She is very smart and loves to read. She is fun loving and likes to do most anything. She loves to play basketball. She tried soccer this year and did well but said she likes basketball better. Good thing she is going to be tall. Not one of my boys plays sports. Kambrie claims she is a tomboy. I keep trying to tell her that it is okay to be a girl! She wants to grow up to be a number of things but a Librarian is at the top of her list. Kambrie likes to go fast on the back of my motorcycle. She has loved riding with me since she was just tiny. I bought her a little 50 she did well on it but had a bit of a spill last year and would rather have a four wheeler now.

Here are pictures of me with each of my children whom I treasure more than anything on the face of the entire planet!

Everyone's Favorite!

I love making cookies and have been collecting good cookie recipes for over twenty years. This is my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. They are a bit on the sweet side but you can use semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than milk if that suits your fancy.

Chocolate chip cookies

1 pound of butter (yes, I said an entire pound of butter...not margarine!)

1 and 1/4 C. sugar

2 C. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

6 C. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 and 1/2 tsp. soda

3 C. chocolate chips

Cream the soft butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips ( I use closer to 4 cups of the chocolate chips).

Form into balls and bake them at 375* for about ten minutes.

Devour them while they are still warm!